Three-dimensional (3D) printing and other forms of additive manufacturing have been increasing in popularity in recent years. 3D printing is expected to continue growing in popularity for the foreseeable future. 3D printing refers to a process in which successive layers of material are deposited by a 3D printer or other additive manufacturing device under computer control to form a three-dimensional object. A number of additive processes exist to deposit the layers used to produce the 3D object. Some processes use heat to melt or soften material used to form the layers making up the 3D object. Examples of such processes include, but not limited to, fused deposition modeling (FDM), selective laser melting (SLM), direct metal laser sintering (DMLS), selective laser sintering (SLS), and fused filament fabrication (FFF). Other 3D printing processes, such as stereolithography (SLA), use a curing process to harden liquid material used to form the layers of the 3D model.
Fused deposition modeling (FDM) remains one of the more popular 3D printing processes. In an FDM 3D printing process, a 3D object is produced from a model by extruding small beads of material which harden to form the layers. A thermoplastic filament or metal wire that is wound on a coil is unreeled to supply material to an extrusion nozzle. The extrusion nozzle heats the material before it is deposited and the flow of the material is controlled by the 3D printer. Typically, stepper motors or servo motors under control of a microcontroller are used to move the extrusion nozzle and adjust the flow of material in order to deposit the material on a build platform (or print bed) and build the 3D object layer by layer until a completed 3D object is formed. Typically, the 3D printer utilizes 3 axes of motion to generate the 3D object. A wide variety of thermoplastic materials are available for 3D printing including, but not limited to polylactic acid (PLA), acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), polycarbonate (PC), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), nylon, resins, metals, ceramics, and high impact polystyrene (HIPS).
The time required to print a 3D object is dependent upon the size and complexity of the 3D object. Currently, creating a 3D object from a 3D model requires starting with a blank build platform and building the object up from multiple layers to form the completed object. The build platform is a surface upon which the thermoplastic material is deposited by the extrusion nozzle during the printing process. A simple object, such as a simple nutcracker, may require several hours for printing. Larger objects or more complex objects may take a long time to print and may consume a large amount of filament.
Hereinafter, a “3D printing” refers to an additive manufacturing process in which a three-dimensional physical object is built from a 3D model using a 3D printing device or other additive manufacturing device. Hereinafter, a “3D model” refers to a mathematical representation of a three-dimensional object. For example, a 3D object can be expressed by a canonical model such as an XML descriptor or other 3D mesh model description.